In coal mining techniques, wet fines with small diameters (e.g., of less than 1.5 mm) are generated, mostly as aqueous slurries. The fines comprise particles which are rich in coal and particles which are rich in inorganic material (also called ash). Techniques have been developed to separate at least part of the ash from the coal, with simultaneous preparation of coal agglomerates with a low ash content. These techniques may also be used for the agglomeration of coal fines from slurries thereof which do not contain ash. In order to prepare the coal agglomerates, an oil fraction is added as a binder to the slurry fines, by which binder the coal particles are preferably wetted and agglomerated. Ash particles are not, or only to a slight extent, wetted by the oil fraction, and are not agglomerated to any substantial extent.
An unattractively large energy input is needed in these prior art processes to obtain the oil fraction in the slurry of fines in droplets of sufficiently small size. Again, a relatively large amount of the binder is needed in order to agglomerate the greater part or all of the coal particles present in the slurry of fines. Accordingly, there has existed a need for an improved process which would eliminate these disadvantages.